Romantic Confession: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas de Quincey

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: Martina Domines Veliki
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature)
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract (english)

In the introductory part of the Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821), De Quincey makes a distinction between French and English confessional writings by saying that ‘nothing, indeed, is more revolting to English feelings than the spectacle of a human being obtruding on our notice his moral ulcers or scars, and tearing away that “decent drapery” which time or indulgence to human frailty may have drawn over them’. French sensibility, according to De Quincey is ‘spurious and defective’ while the English is always concerned with the constitution of the moral faculties. Departing from De Quincey’s remark and his confessional autobiography, this paper aims to explore the origins of Romantic confessional writing and possible overlapping between Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s and De Quincey’s work.
It will also try to locate ‘confession’ within Romantic autobiographical writings, stressing the importance of a truly autonomous subject, fully conscious of his uniqueness. Furthermore, the paper will try to deal with the poststructuralist vein of thinking, departing from Linda Anderson’s contention that ‘autobiography represents a privileged form for a Romantic writer because it confirms his plight: the perplexity of a self forever recasting and repeating itself as text.’

• Keywords (english): Thomas De Quincey; drug autobiography; Jean-Jacques Rousseau; romantic confession; romantic subjectivity
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Peer review
• Publication version: Published version
• Journal title: Studia Romanica et Anglica Zagrabiensia
• Numbering: vol. 60, no. -, pp. 131-144
• p-ISSN: 0039-3339
• e-ISSN: 1849-1421
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:666464
• Publication: 2015
• Document URL: https://hrcak.srce.hr/168207
• Type of resource: Text
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2020-02-13 09:06:47